46 Brake change

Uncle Josh

OK, just replaced front backing plate and hub on a 46 PU with ones from a 49 Super Six, since I'm gonna run a straight eight in it. Only problem I had was that the nut seemed to run out of threads early.



A measurement gave an inside/out dimension of the 46 hub as 4 1/4 and the 49 as 4 in.



A double key-washer gave the nut some extra room and the bearings snugged up just fine.



Anybody else had any experience with this?

Uncle Josh

Yup, but this is 60 years later. This 46 came to me with a car rear end which had a broken spider shaft. It now has a good one from a junk donor, but the brakes are 10 inch. The rear is gonna stay that way for a while, for I won't be carrying heavy loads anyway.



The front had an original 11 in on the R side, and a replacement 10 in on the L. After a bit of a quandry, the L inner bearing proved to be loose on the spindle.



I'm gettin educated. When I went to use the stepdown bearings with the stepdown hub, the inner was loose. Aha! Maybe it's because the 46 inner spindle is about .050 smaller than the stepdown. Fortunately, the OD of the bearing appears to be the same size, and the outer bearing appears to be the same ID and OD. Whoever replaced the L hub didn't do his homework and stuck an inner stepdown bearing in there. Gotta check everybody's work including your own!



A measurement of spindles showed about 3 inches from the inner surface to the outer bearing surface on both. However, the dimension to the end of the nut thread was about 3/16 shorter on the stepdown.



Reminds me of the farmer's daughter sitting on the front porch late one evening with her suitor. He's beatin around the bush about his assets, a plow, horse, buggy etc. Father yells from inside the house, "Is that young man there yet?"



She responds, "No Paw, but he's a-gettin' there."